Why supervision is important, by Molly Weasley
by fantasys-dance
Summary: When Molly Weasley arranges for her 6 year old twins to get to know the nice well-behaved muggle boy in the village, she hopes he will have a good influence on them. In hindsight, she should have been a little more concerned about their influences on him. But it could have been worse. She was sure it could have been worse. After all, no-one had needed to be obliviated.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Merry Christmas! I saw the prompt below on Instagram and immediately thought of this. I'm going to post this in three parts, all on the same night if the site will cooperate. Hope you like it. I don't own Harry Potter. Reviews make my day so I'd love feedback!

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Prompt: Your kid calls you to their room one night, 'there's something under the bed'. You go down to check it out and upon inspection see your child under the bed and they whisper 'I think there's a monster on the bed.'

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In hindsight, Molly Weasley thought that it could have been worse. It could definitely have been worse. All was well that ended well anyway. Although, equally in hindsight, perhaps encouraging Fred and George to make friends with the nice, calm, studious boy from the village wasn't the best idea. In hindsight, she really should have been suspicious when they stopped complaining so soon about having to spend time with Jeremy. In hindsight, she should have been really, really, really suspicious when they suddenly asked if they could have a sleepover with him. But then again, all was well that ended well, and this at least, could have been worse.

It all started several months ago really, when the new muggle family moved into the village and Molly met the father while shopping. He had his son with him, Jeremy, at seven was a year older than the twins but a year younger than Percy. She'd gotten talking with his dad, who was named Marcus, and they got to talking about their kids, and he mentioned that Jeremy was rather quiet and found it hard to make friends, and that he really wished that he would spend less time reading and more time running around. In return, Molly shared a few stories about Percy, and how her children frequently dragged him out to play. And they kept talking, and slowly, the plan was born.

It wasn't a very sophisticated plan, it merely involved getting the twins and Jeremy together and hoping that they would be a good influence on each other. Molly was sure that the twins were old enough to remember when they couldn't mention magic, and she thought Jeremy might calm them down a little. Marcus in return hoped that the twins, highly active children from what Molly had said, would encourage Jeremy to spend a little less time reading and some more running around and making friends. In hindsight, the plan may have been a little optimistic.

It would probably have been alright if Percy hadn't been away at the time. If both Percy and Jeremy had been around, then maybe they would have managed to reign in the twins. As it was, it was two against one and Jeremy didn't have a hope. It wasn't that it was an instant change, it was merely that it was a steady one. In hindsight, maybe she should have supervised her sons more during the visits.

The first play-date had to be by necessity, in the village. Marcus and Sharon (his wife) were still painting (Molly did not want her sons anywhere near tempting cans of paint and paintbrushes. That was not a disaster waiting to happen, that was a disaster dancing around in a clown costume and _begging_ to happen.) their new house, and Molly quickly made up an excuse that they were renovating theirs and there were a lot of tools lying around (Bringing a muggle boy into the Burrow was also a disaster begging to happen). So, the first play-date happened in the village park.

It was summer, about a month after the muggles had moved in when Molly finally convinced the twins to meet up with 'the nice muggle boy' and Marcus convinced his son to emerge from a good book for an afternoon. Marcus brought Jeremy to the park, and Molly brought the twins. They introduced the boys and then got into a conversation. In hindsight, supervising the children may have been more important. Or at least, supervising Fred and George.

As first impressions went, the three children did not hit it off. Fred and George took one look at the boy and thought 'Percy will like him' and Jeremy took one look at Fred and George, dressed in a motley assortment of Percy and Charlie's old clothes, much patched and already with a couple of tears in them, and promptly suggested they play hide and seek.

This was not out of any wish to actually play the game, but merely because Jeremy happened to be very good at hiding, and he had his book stuffed up the back of his jumper. Unfortunately for him, Fred and George had six years experience playing hide and seek in the burrow, which offered far more, and better, hiding places, and found him within two minutes, with 'Treasure Island' barely opened.

Also unfortunately, Fred spotted the cover of the book and suggested they go treasure hunting. Jeremy said the book wasn't about treasure (he'd only just started it) and George asked what it was about.

"Pirates"

"Lets play pirates then!"

"We can make swords out of sticks!"

"And eye-patches from leaves!"

This did actually sound rather fun. Jeremy hesitated, looking from his book to the two boys.

"We would need a ship" he said cautiously

"We can use the castle!"

"Yeah, the top of the slide can be the lookout."

"And it's already got rigging."

The play castle did indeed have rope netting to climb up. That did it. Jeremy carefully gave his book to his dad, who was by now too distracted to notice that Jeremy hadn't had the book when he'd arrived, and went to play.

An hour and a half later, all three boys had stick swords and leaf eye-patches. Their shoelaces had been removed to use as string, and once they had all taken out one shoelace, it seemed silly not to take the other out, and their shoes wouldn't stay on. And pirates didn't run around in socks, so they came off too. Fred and George both had mud warpaint on their faces, and all three of them were climbing over the play castle yelling about enemy ships and walking the plank. Even if two of the boys were wizards, and the other was a muggle, some childhood things were rather universal, and pirates is one of them.

When Molly and Marcus finally realised how long they had been chatting (they'd started talking about cooking, and then they were swapping recipes and then they got carried away) and called for their kids, the three boys that turned up were all dusty, waving sticks and eye-patches and grinning madly. Marcus gave a shocked laugh at seeing Jeremy, who was still missing his shoes and by this point had also lost his jumper (the pirate ship needed a flag). Molly had her first twinge of misgiving.

Nevertheless, the friendship continued. The next play-date was at the lake behind the burrow, because Fred and George asked and everyone had promised to keep brooms on the ground and everyone away from the house. Molly made a picnic for the boys and told them not to go further than the shallow end of the lake. She made sure that Jeremy could swim, just in case, and left them all in swimming costumes.

As soon as she was out of sight, the hunt for swords began and eye-patches were pulled out again. These were a little stronger than their previous ones, now made from cardboard and string rather than leaves. Once that was done the old row boat was pulled out, and the adventure was on.

And so it continued. On the fourth play-date, Jeremy pulled his first prank. It was a small affair with water balloons, but Fred and George celebrated it loudly, and Jeremy was just realising how much he enjoyed having friends and that running around and getting covered in mud was actually rather fun. On the seventh play-date, there was an incident of accidental magic.

Usually, this would have resulted in a quick owl to Arthur who would have quietly arranged for the obliviaters to deal with the muggle involved, but this time, there was no adult around. And it wasn't Fred or George's magic. They were in the woods (the pirates really were hunting for buried treasure this time) and a rotten branch dropped on Jeremy, and should have knocked him down. Instead, it bounced off his shoulder and he looked a bit nervous. Fred and George of course, handled it with subtlety and gentleness.

"Hey, you didn't tell us you're a wizard!"

"All this time we thought you were a muggle!"

Jeremy stared at them, this wasn't quite the reaction he'd expected. Most of the time when something weird happened to him, people didn't believe him, even if they'd actually seen it. And he'd never heard the term muggle before.

By the end of the visit, Jeremy had been informed of the meaning of both muggle and muggle-born, and of a great many things in the wizarding world, most importantly of course, broomsticks. They had also decided that they weren't going to tell anyone that Jeremy was a wizard. That would be boring. Instead, the sleepover was planned.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Second part, and I still don't own Harry Potter.

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It didn't take much convincing for Marcus or Sharon to agree. They hadn't heard that much about what their son had been up to near the burrow, and Molly had always made sure that Jeremy was cleaned up a little before he went home. Molly took a little more effort (she was beginning to realise that the twins were having rather more influence on Jeremy that Jeremy was on the twins), but after a little pleading, she too gave permission.

It was of course, to be at Jeremy's house, because the burrow, no matter how much magical things were put away, would not sustain an image of normalcy for a whole sleepover. Even if the mirrors could be convinced to stop talking, an owl would probably turn up in the morning with the paper, or somebody would floo call or, well, a few dozen other things.

The boys plan was actually rather simple. One twin would go downstairs to talk to Marcus, the other would hide under the bed, and Jeremy would hide in the cupboard with the camera. Molly never did find out where they got the polyjuice potion from. Then again, she probably didn't want to know.

What she did find out, was that Marcus could scream pretty loudly. It was a good thing she'd been in the village to do some last minute shopping because otherwise, well, she didn't really want to think about it. Molly of course didn't bother wasting time wondering where the scream was coming from. She had dropped the twins off for a sleepover a few hours ago. What were the odds that the twins were not at least somehow involved in causing the scream. So Molly headed straight for Jeremy's house.

The door was locked when she got there, and no one answered the bell. Usually she would have waited a few minutes and tried again, but this time she pulled out her wand and discretely cast alohomora. This was technically, against the statute of secrecy, but from the sounds emanating from the house, the statute of secrecy was already being made into a paper aeroplane, or more likely, a pirate ship. She opened the door and went inside.

Now Molly Weasley had been the sister of Gideon and Fabian Prewit, and was the mother of seven children, and she had a distinctly tougher skin than most parents, and was distinctly more used to the unexpected. However even she was floored for a second by the fact that it was _Jeremy_ sitting on the kitchen table with Marcus looking at him in horror. Usually, it was Fred or George or frequently, both.

"Is everything all right?"

Marcus whirled around to look at the kitchen door. He was looking pale and his hair looked as though he'd run his hands through it at least a hundred times. He had an almost feral look on his face.

"M-M-Molly."

"I'm very sorry for my sons, I'll take them home right away and.."

"Th-There's two of them!"

Molly frowned. Marcus knew that Fred and George were twins. She was absolutely certain that he knew.

"Err, are you feeling alright?"

At that rather unfortunate moment, another Jeremy ran into the room wailing at the top of his lungs "I told you twins were contagious! Don't believe it! _I'm_ Jeremy."

Molly Weasley had not learnt nothing from keeping a house of seven magical children alive and mostly sane. The pieces fell into place as soon as she saw the second Jeremy. It helped that the second Jeremy skidded to a horrified halt as soon as he saw Molly, and that the one of the table suddenly looked hunted. She took a deep breath. The twins cowered.

"WHAT WERE YOU _THINKING_? THEY ARE **MUGGLES**!"

The Jeremy on the table looked helplessly at the Jeremy in the doorway through to the living room. That Jeremy looked right back in equal helplessness.

"Whose idea was this?" Molly demanded, trying to moderate her volume a little in respect for Marcus's shocked expression. "Out with it. NOW."

And then, a small, meek voice from behind the second Jeremy said "Mine. Please don't kill me."

And the third Jeremy stepped out from around the corner, still holding a camera. Marcus made a whimpering noise and took a step back. Molly blinked in confusion, then swelled with anger again. She whirled on what she was _fairly_ certain were her own sons.

"YOU TOLD HIM ABOUT MAGIC!"

Jeremy, the real one, whimpered a little, but gathered his courage. He had been friends with the Weasley twins for less than two months, but already he had heard volumes about the Weasley matriarchs temper, and that there was little that could be done about it but give in and tell the truth, the sooner the better.

"Actually, I'm a wizard."

Marcus gave out another whimper, but seemed to have passed completely beyond speech. Molly spared a thought to wonder if she had a calming draught on her. The poor man was going to need it.

"That's lovely dear. When did you find out?"

Jeremy risked a glance up at Molly "A week ago."

"I see, I take it from this that you haven't told your parents yet."

"Err, not exactly."

"Right then."

Molly did have a calming draught in her handbag, and she put the kettle on and told Marcus to sit down. Then she tried to carefully approach the topic of wizardry.

"Marcus, have you ever noticed anything, well, _odd_ happening around Jeremy?"

Marcus made an odd gurgling sound and looked at the three Jeremy's, who were now all standing rather guiltily together. Molly followed his line of sight and realised that they were probably beyond tactical approaches.

"Well, err, the short version is that your son is a wizard. And my sons are too. They've disguised themselves as your son. I'm very sorry."

"Magic isn't real." said Marcus, in the tone of voice of someone who has just found himself in a new reality and is just realising how much he liked the old one. Molly tactfully didn't say anything, and instead made the tea, pouring a generous portion of calming draught in it.

Marcus took the tea shakily, but did drink it, and mercifully calmed down significantly. Or at least, calmed down enough to ask questions. Molly started with what seemed the most urgent at the time, and explained polyjuice potion. Then she moved on to the basics, and described how the wizarding world stayed secret. She was just starting on the statute of secrecy when two of the Jeremy's started grimacing and their features rearranged themselves and then changed completely. Fred and George wisely stayed quiet while Molly finished explaining the statute of secrecy and went on to explain about muggleborns and Hogwarts.

Then she stood up and said much more calmly than she felt "I think that's probably enough for one day. I'll pop by tomorrow to see how your doing. I think I will take the twins home now."

Marcus nodded and thanked her for stopping by and explaining things, and showed them out. Molly thought she was very restrained and she waited until she got the boys home before she started shouting again.

When she was finished, and she'd dragged the story out of Fred and George ("We wondered what would happen if there was a monster on the bed as well as under." and "It was more realistic if we both pretended to be Jeremy, otherwise it would have been obvious." and "You don't want to know where the Polyjuice came from Mum.") she informed them that they were both grounded for three weeks, and they had double chores for another three weeks after that, then sent them to bed.

She waited until she was sure that they were asleep before she allowed herself to laugh, just a tiny bit. After all, it could have been worse. At least no one needed to be obliviated.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Last part, still don't own Harry Potter

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Molly Weasley sighed with exhaustion. It was the Christmas holidays, and Bill and Charlie were home from Hogwarts. She was of course delighted that her sons were home, but she could have done without the prank war. Bill was a third year this year, which meant that he could visit Hogsmeade, and Zonko's, and so had decided that it was time to get revenge on the twins. Fred and George, and by extension, Jeremy, had _not_ of course, taken this lying down. Hence the prank war. A week into the holiday, she was already sick of fixing endless hiccups, green hair, hopping, paint splatters, the stink of dungbombs and a vast collection of other things. Bill and Charlie may have the advantage of Zonko's products, but Fred, George and Jeremy had the advantage of, well, Fred and George. Arthur wasn't much help, he was out most of the day, and Percy, Ron and Ginny were just trying to stay out of it.

She looked up from making mince pies at another explosion from above, followed by several yells. Not again.

And then a lot of clattering.

And some banging.

And a few thumps.

Then the smell of dungbombs.

That. Was. It.

Molly put down the baking things, and went upstairs. The twins and Jeremy were just picking themselves up from a tangle on the floor, all soaking wet, stinking of dungbomb and looking a bit shell shocked. Molly waved her wand and dried them out, then fired a series of charms at them to get rid of the smell. She knew quite a collection of spells to get rid of dungbomb stenches. She'd learned well from Gid and Fab, and expanded her repertoire since.

"You two! Get down here."

Two gleeful faces withdrew from the railings of the floor above and headed downstairs, pasting on guilty looks as they did. Molly wasn't in the slightest bit fooled.

"That's quite enough pranking. Go out and practice Quidditch for a bit you two."

"But they'll prank our rooms if we leave the house!" Protested Bill.

"They will follow you out as soon as they've had baths." Molly said firmly. Charms could do a lot, but they'd wear off. Best deal with the stench _now_. Bill and Charlie protested a bit more, but did grudgingly head out to play Quidditch, more because Charlie wanted to make the house team next year than because she told them too. Fred, George and Jeremy she directed towards the bathroom. She waved her wand at the stairs behind them, setting up a shimmering shield."

"That spell will last twenty minutes. I want you all showered and out of the house before it wears off. Clear?"

The three boys nodded, eyeing the stairs with disappointment, and Molly headed downstairs to finish making mince pies. She doubted that they'd really be all done before the time was up, they only had one bathroom with a shower below Bill and Charlie's rooms, but she'd go up and check on them just before it ended and keep an eye on them.

Ten minutes later though, Fred headed down the stairs, smelling fine and dressed in winter gear. He waved and headed out the back door. Molly frowned. They usually waited for each other. But they couldn't go upstairs, and maybe he was bored waiting around. When George headed out the back door ten minutes later, she relaxed. The spell would have run out by now, but she wasn't worried about Jeremy. He might be developing into a good prankster, but she'd never heard of him doing anything on his own, and she doubted he'd start today. She happily went back to giving her full attention to the baking, satisfied that for the next few hours, there would be no sudden bangs, splashes or yells. Peace.

An hour later, Fred and George came running in asking for some water, closely followed by Bill and Charlie, telling that they weren't pranking their room on their watch. Molly sighed. That hadn't lasted nearly as long as she'd hoped. She doubted she'd get them all outside again, so she told Bill and Charlie to go and read in their room for a bit if they were so worried. The twins of course started to follow, but she told them to stay. _They_ could remain where she could see them.

There were loud thumps up the stairs, then the creaking of her eldest boys bedroom door. Then, there was a crash, two yells, and a suspicious fizzing sound that kept getting louder. Molly choked. They'd been outside! She'd blocked the stairs! How? Surely not Jeremy?

"FRED!" shouted two voices from upstairs. Molly frowned. Fred was sitting right in front of her.

But there was new thumps on the stairs, and a few seconds later Fred came running into the room.

"Sorry, I didn't quite get out in time."

With a nasty feeling of deja-vu, Molly looked between the Fred in the doorway and the Fred sitting down. The one sitting down was swinging his legs. Fred never swung his legs. He squirmed.

" **What. Did. I. Tell. You. About.** _ **Polyjuice. Potion**_?" she said, making sure her voice dripped danger. All three boys shrank back.

"We didn't use it!" protested the twins. The real ones.

Molly raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"We didn't!"

She turned to the not-Fred, sure that he would break more easily than her own boys. He did. In seconds he was looking guilty, then he was squirming, then ginger hair was fading to brown and Fred's features were melting away to reveal Jeremy's.

"See, no polyjuice!" the real Fred said smugly. Molly held in her groan.

Of _course_ Jeremy was a metamorphmagus. Of _course_.

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By the time the Easter holidays came around Molly was so used to three twins running around that she didn't even blink. She could even tell at a glance (admittedly a long careful glance) whether there were two Fred's or two George's. She learned to count three twins safely into the garden before she relaxed about them making trouble in the house at least. However, it seemed that there was going to come a time when she wouldn't have to do so. The news came a couple of weeks before the Easter holidays started, and Molly had to admit that, despite being a little relieved, she was also very sad for the twins. Sharon had been promoted, and while this was a good thing, it did mean that they would have to move to France.

The twins and Jeremy of course were devastated. Not only were they not going to be able to see each other everyday any more, but Jeremy would, in all like likelihood, end up going to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts. They were planning on moving over the summer holidays, and so the three boys were spending every possible moment they could together, out in the woods or on the lake or planning a good deal more pranks than Molly was happy with. When the Easter holidays rolled around however, she put her foot down. She informed all three boys that if they restarted the prank war they would be grounded until the summer holidays and would have double chores for all of that time. She owled Bill and Charlie to inform them both that if _they_ restarted the prank war she would send them weekly howlers detailing embarrassing childhood exploits until they wished they'd never heard of Zonko's. All five decided that discretion was the better part of valour and promised they would not prank each other over the holidays. There were times when Molly Weasley could be crossed, and there were times when she most emphatically _couldn't_.

So Molly fully expected to have a fairly peaceful holiday, or at least, a peaceful holiday for the Weasley household, and on the second day, settled down happily to making cookies. Of course, once the smell of baking cookies spread through the house, most of the residents came wandering downstairs with wide pleading puppy dog eyes. Molly however was a mother of seven and had long since become immune to even the best puppy dog eyes and sent them all out into the garden, one after the other to burn off some energy. Bill and Charlie went off without complaint, calling that they'd do some flying. Percy said he had a book and was heading back upstairs before Molly told him she'd confiscate the book if he didn't get some exercise. Ron and Ginny, who'd been playing chess together came down next, and were likewise sent outside. It took several minutes of wondering where-exactly-are-the-trio-and-what-are-they-planning before she remembered they were playing at Jeremy's today and coming round for supper. Molly relaxed and twenty minutes later took the cookies out and left them to cool on the kitchen table.

It was at this point that George came in, predictably following his nose. "We're back Mum, can we have cookies?"

"Later, go and play in the garden with the others."

"Just one Mum? We're really hungry." George pleaded, trying the puppy dog eyes.

"Later I said."

George complained a bit but headed back out a bit, saying he was going to get the others and go to through to the garden. A few instants later he stuck his head back in "You wanna come out and play too?"

Molly thought about it, it was a nice day, and she could keep an eye on her hoard of kids, and if she could see both twins and Jeremy, then her cookies were pretty safe. "I think I will" she agreed. George smiled and vanished. Molly waited until she'd seen three figures head off into the garden, two George's and a Fred today, and then stuck her wand in her pocket and went out to sit on the grass for a bit.

It was actually a rather nice hour, and Molly thought she should probably do it more often. About half an hour in one of the Georges came over to say he'd left his hat at Jeremy's and to ask if they could go and get it. Molly thought it could wait, but didn't see the harm, and so allowed the three of them to head off, carefully watching that they didn't cut through the kitchen of course. Molly wasn't born yesterday.

After the hour, Molly thought she'd better go back inside and box up the cookies. She yawned but got up and went inside, summoning some tubs with her wand. Then she looked at the table. Where half a tray of cookies were missing. And stared.

She'd had all three of them under her eye! She'd been _sure_ they hadn't cut through the kitchen! How had they nicked the cookies! She walked to the kitchen door and scanned for the twins. There, just behind the tree line, a flash of red hair.

"FRED. GEORGE. JEREMY." she bawled.

There was a long pause, then slowly and guiltily a twin emerged from the trees, still chewing. Then another emerged, then another. Then _another._ Molly blinked several times, then rubbed her eyes. There were still four twins. What in Merlin 's name was going on?

She went out to meet the four almost identical boys, holding her wand carefully in her pocket just in case.

"Well?"

"We're sorry." chorused four voices, who couldn't possibly have not expected to get caught. That wasn't really, for once, what Molly was looking for though.

"There are four of you." she stated, a little irritably.

There was a pause, and then one of the Fred's grew a bit shorter and became Jeremy again. Then one of the Georges shot upwards and changed to reveal an eleven year old with spiky pink hair and a mischievous expression.

"I'm Tonks. Nice to meet you. You're a great cook."

Molly Weasley just stared. There had, once, just been two of them. Then there had been three. Now, apparently there were four. She gave up.

"Erm, the ministry organised for another metamorphmagus to visit me." Jeremy piped up when the silence lengthened.

"Right." Molly said a little faintly "Any more of you running around?"

All four shook their heads, having the grace to look a little guilty.

"Right then, you can all come and help me cook supper. Where I can _see_ you."

"Yes Mum."

"Yes Mrs Weasley." chorused four voices, and Molly directed them indoors.

Honestly, what where her sons going to do next? Actually, on reflection, she didn't really want to know.


End file.
